This invention generally relates to a livestock watering device and, particularly, to a type of watering bucket having means for continuously heating and circulating the water without power-flow or pump means.
Heated livestock watering devices have been known as long ago as the use of lanterns positioned below a watering trough for supplying heated water to poultry or other barnlot fowl or animals. Over the years, more sophisticated devices have been designed for preventing a supply of water for livestock from freezing.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,472,178 to Temple, issued July 7, 1949, shows a livestock water bucket which includes a heater element that floats on the top surface of the water and is connected through conduit means extending through the water itself to an appropriate electrical source. U.S. Pat. No. 2,479,355 to Hemker, issued Aug. 16, 1949, shows a water bowl which includes a treadle inside the bowl for actuating a valve which supplies heated water to the bowl. U.S. Pat. No. 4,068,116 to McKinstry, issued July 10, 1978, shows a heating element which is designed to be submerged and rest on the bottom of a watering bucket for livestock.
In all of the above designs, the heating elements themselves or the actuating means for the supply of water are disposed directly inside the water bucket. This may be satisfactory for certain docile animals, but in the case of other animals, such as many horses, such foreign objects within the bucket itself causes a horse to reluctantly drink out of the bucket, if at all.
Another problem in using heated elements with livestock watering buckets is the accumulation of debris, such as hay or grain which is dropped into the bucket by the horse, from migrating into the flow conduit means for the bucket and either clogging the conduit or dangerously overheating the heating element itself.
Still another problem with heated water buckets which might be used in the confined quarters of a stall, for instance, is that the exterior components of the heating means or conduit means are complicated, large and cumbersome and which present a hazard whereby a horse may become entangled in the apparatus and cause serious injury.
This invention is directed to providing a new and improved heated water bucket for livestock, such as horses, which has no heating components or similar apparatus within the bucket itself and which operates without any pumps or other power-flow devices.